Hundreds of bereaved parents are gathering in Parliament Square on July 3 to lay pairs of their children’s shoes on the pavement, a powerful visual protest against the “cliff edge” state support that families face after a child dies.
Timed to coincide with National Bereaved Parents Day, the Walk in Our Shoes demonstration highlights the immediate financial, employment, and psychological crisis hitting families.
Many of these households face a severe reduction in state benefits within 24 hours of their loss.
A simultaneous event will take place in Liverpool, while parents across the UK are being urged to join online by sharing photographs of their children’s shoes.
Bereaved parents lay children’s shoes outside Parliament in call for Hugh’s Law
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WALK IN OUR SHOES CAMPAIGN
The demonstration comes amid a growing national campaign for “Hugh’s Law”, named after six-year-old Hugh Menai-Davis, who died from cancer in 2021.
The calls are for statutory paid leave, job protections for parents of seriously ill children, and a structured mental health support framework.
For many parents, the current system triggers an immediate financial collapse.
Claire, a mother of five supported by the charity It’s Never You, lost her eldest son Hugo, who was born with Charge syndrome, after a sudden and traumatic end‑of‑life event.
“I was Hugo’s mummy. I was his advocate, and I was a person who kept his world ticking until the day it stopped,” she said.
Many families face a dramatic reduction in their benefit payments within 24 hours of losing their child
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WALK IN OUR SHOES CAMPAIGN
“Hugo’s end of life was sudden, unexpected and extremely traumatic. That wasn’t the hard part.”
Within 48 hours of Hugo’s death, Claire said she faced the immediate clawback of his medical equipment and the Mobility vehicle that had been delivered only a week earlier.
She said the car had cost £54,000 and she had driven it for just seven days.
“I lost Hugo’s DLA. I lost my carer’s allowance. I had my Universal Credit cut by sixty per cent, and I was left with a funeral to plan and one child less than the five I’d given birth to. And I had to get a job very quickly or risk losing everything.”
Helen, whose son Michael was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma in June 2021 and underwent fifteen months of inpatient treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital, described a similar financial shock.
“We had to use so much of our savings to get us through the months and months of hospital stays,” she told GB News.
“It is impossible to work while your baby has cancer. We spent thousands on food and transport whilst unable to work, all whilst keeping the lights on at home.”
“I lost Hugo’s DLA [Disability Living Allowance]. I lost my carer’s allowance.
“I had my Universal Credit cut by 60 per cent, and I was left with a funeral to plan and one child less than the five I’d given birth to.
“And I had to get a job very quickly or risk losing everything.”
Helen, whose son Michael was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma in June 2021 and underwent 15 months of inpatient treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital, faced a similar financial shock.
“We had to use so much of our savings to get us through the months and months of hospital stays.
“It is impossible to work while your baby has cancer. We spent thousands on food and transport whilst unable to work, all whilst keeping the lights on at home.”
For families outside their local network, the lack of immediate state coordination can be devastating.
Kathy Lapsley, whose six year old daughter Jasmine died suddenly in a choking accident during a family holiday in Wales, said the support her family received in the immediate aftermath was “shocking.”
“We were rushed to the hospital, and we walked out of the hospital that night carrying a box,” Ms Lapsley said. “We had a memory box with a disposable camera and an aged pink teddy.”
She said there was no family liaison officer and no guidance about what would happen next. “No one cared how we were getting home, no one cared how we were.”
“There was no support. You can’t undo that, the lack of support will be with us forever.”
Ms Lapsley said the absence of help left her family in crisis.
“Not getting that support plunged us into survival, I didn’t think I could live another minute, another day. Unless someone holds you within that to ensure you are supported, you are just left.”
Data cited by the It’s Never You campaign paints a stark picture of the systemic pressure placed on families when a child is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
Approximately 3,500 children under the age of 16 die each year in England and Wales—an average of 10 children every day.
Shoes are being left outside Parliament in memory of the young lives that have passed away
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WALK IN OUR SHOES CAMPAIGN
Because serious illness requires round-the-clock parental care, existing state structures frequently fail to protect a family’s livelihood:
- 88 per cent of parents are left with no choice but to reduce their working hours or quit their jobs entirely.
- 95 per cent of families experience severe financial hardship following their child’s diagnosis.
- 79 per cent of parents report a direct deterioration in their mental health.
- Over 70 per cent are forced to borrow money, rely on credit, or delay essential bill payments to keep going.
Under current rules, parents of children older than 29 days receive no dedicated statutory entitlement to leave or pay while caring for a critically ill child.
Consequently, by the time a child passes away, many parents have already lost their jobs and do not meet the strict qualifying criteria for standard statutory bereavement pay.
Furthermore, welfare support such as Disability Living Allowance stops at midnight on the day of the child’s death, reinforcing the campaign’s call for a stronger support package.
Campaign organiser Ceri Menai-Davis founded the charity It’s Never You alongside his wife Frances after discovering the total absence of government support during their son Hugh’s 10-month cancer battle.
She told Britain’s News Channel: “Faced with impossible choices, many parents reduce their hours, take unpaid leave, leave work altogether, or are forced out of employment because they simply cannot balance work with being by their child’s side through treatment, hospital admissions, emergencies and end-of-life care.
“Parents who have just experienced the worst trauma imaginable can suddenly find themselves without financial support, without employment protections, without mental health intervention and without any clear route forward.”
The campaign is urging the Government to adopt a comprehensive Bereaved Parent Support Package independent of employment status, alongside a compassionate, phased transition of financial support.
“The answer is not simply more bereavement leave. Many parents will never qualify for it,” Ms Menai-Davis said.
“The death of a child is not the end of being a parent.
“Yet for many families, it marks the end of almost all the support available to them.
“That cannot be right. A compassionate society should not create a cliff edge of support at the very moment parents need it most.”